But yesterday, we were will enough to go back to work.  And the little fish who controls the weather felt accommodating enough to make it sunny and warm, which was most appreciated.  At some point during the day–and I blame Chase for this–the idea of grilling burgers started fluttering around in my head.  Normally, I prefer ideas not flutter around in my brain.  It tickles, for one thing, and the noise is a bit disturbing.  But this idea was so appealing, I let it slide.  After all, I’ve been itching (figuratively, I swear) to get my grill on for weeks now.  Not to mention that grilling is a relatively easy, low-maintenance way to cook dinner and a good way for me to ease back into cooking while I recovered.  Clearly summer was trying to break free from Cold Miser’s grasp.  That made it my duty to embrace it with a good grilled burger, which, let’s be honest, is the epitome of summer itself.

I assume that thought–summer–is what spurred on the desire for chimichurri sauce.  There are certain foods that just make me feel summery.  Burgers, naturally.  Grilled ones.  Chili dogs from Bill’s Hot Dog Stand.  Mojitos.  Agua fresca.  And chimichurri sauce.

I’ve mentioned chimichurri sauce before.  Let’s hop into the Waaaay Back Machine all the way to…oh…last spring and you might remember a little tree-cutting party we had on the property of our then-new-old house.  To thank everyone for helping Josh do some work, I made mojito slushies, baked a big pernil pork roast and served it with a  side of chimichurri sauce, which is basically an Argentinian condiment made from herbs, garlic, olive oil and vinegar.  It’s delicious.  I like to serve it on pork or chicken, as a dipping sauce for chips, on top of soup…and in a good burger.  The second best thing about it–besides it’s deliciousness level, which is very high–is how easy and customizable it is.  It’s kind of one of those “toss in what you have” sort of deals and it makes whatever else you’re serving seem suddenly very exotic.

This is one of those things I don’t really have a recipe for, so just follow my lead and adjust things where you need to:

• I started with whatever herbs I had on hand going into a blender.  This turned out to be a few sprigs of thyme (leaves only), a couple large sprigs of rosemary (leaves only), some sage and a handful of cilantro.
• I added in two whole cloves of garlic.
• Also a good sized pinch of red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.  Because the spice must flow.
• Then a dash of apple cider vinegar…or regular vinegar or a different kind of vinegar if you have it on hand.
• Start whirring that up in the blender.
• Then drizzle in the olive oil.  Now, I made the snap decision here to use the rest of my blood orange olive oil from Old World Olive Press, which was about a quarter of a cup, and then supplement the rest with regular olive oil.  I didn’t think for a minute that it wouldn’t be delicious.  I knew it would.  There’s no way that combination of flavors is going to miss.  What I didn’t think about until after I had blended everything together and drizzled in the oil until the mixture got to a nice consistency and then poured half of it into the raw beef I had sitting in a bowl…was whether or not it would taste weird in a burger.

But it didn’t.  It tasted delicious.  I used a fork to fluff the ground grass-fed beef we were using and incorporate half the chimichurri into the meat.  Now, just a note here, the extra bit of fat from the oil does make the patties a bit less likely to stay together well on the grill, so you may want to include some ground almonds for binding.  I do it in meatballs all the time.  Works out marvelously.  I didn’t do that here though.  I just powered through.  Using an ice cream scoup, I portioned the meat into 4 beautiful chimichurried balls and then flattened them out slightly into patties and grilled them, alongside some beautiful slices of red onion.

The final burger ended up being: slices of grilled red onion, the burgers, melted sharp white cheddar cheese, slices of fresh avocado, more chimichurri sauce and a nice soft bun.  Josh complimented me later on my boldness for making a burger that was like 90% fat.  Well-marbled grass feed beef at like 85%, plus olive oil, plus avocado…it was like fat on top of fat on top of fat.  Meta fat.  But delicious fat.  And heart-healthy ones too, so don’t be afraid to embrace it.  You might want to stick to just one burger, though.  And I did eat mine with some steamed green beans.  Cough.  With olive oil.  Cough.

Whatever.

Related posts:

1. Our default summertime meal this year is definitely grilling burgers
2. A Hamburger Named Happiness
3. Home, home on the range…something, something buffalo

I’m all very in to combinations this week.  On Sunday, a few friends and I had dinner at El Barzon in Detroit.  If you’ve never been there, it’s a fine dining restaurant in off Michigan Ave that serves Mexican…and Italian.  Mexican and Italian.  Mexitalian.  If that isn’t just a brilliant idea, I don’t know what is.  Why choose between tacos or lasagna?  Have both.  This is America, damnit, the land of opportunity…to have both tortilla chips and salsa and gnocchi in the same meal.  Apparently.

Anyway, I was on my own for dinner yesterday and I decided to make something I’d been thinking about for a few days–burgers.  Specifically, bunless burgers with eggs on top.  I don’t know why I’ve been craving that but the stomach is an odd and mysterious creature.  I try to just give it what it wants, lest it rise up against me.  I made this very simple, yet tasty meal to satisfy the hunger-beast.

What’s really nice is that this meal is really easy to make for one person or four or whatever. Plus it’s a nice collection of flavors and textures—you’ve got the soft spinach at the bottom (or arugula would be good too), crisp red onion, the crunchy exterior of a well-seared burger flavored with spices and sage and then its soft, tender inside, gooey melted sharp cheddar, a pillowy, creamy egg on top and a drizzle of spicy hot sauce.

I mean, be honest–you’re drooling right now just thinking about it.  Making a mess all over your keyboard.  Tsk.

The Cluck-Turk Burger
makes 3

1 pound ground sirloin
1 tbsp Turkish seasoning (salt, cumin, garlic, half-sharp paprika, black pepper, Turkish oregano, sumac, cilantro)
1 tbsp dried sage
1/2 tbsp red pepper flake
1/2 red onion, sliced
6 cups spinach
3oz sharp white cheddar
1-2 tbsp butter
3 large eggs
hot sauce, salt and pepper to taste

Place the ground sirloin in a bowl with the Turkish seasoning, sage and red pepper flake and, using a fork, mix together thoroughly.  Divide meat up into thirds, a little over 5 ounces each, and roll each third into a ball.  Flatten into hamburgers.  Grill or broil burgers to your liking.  I actually broiled mine, about 8 minutes on a side, since it’s winter here still.  Add cheese to the top of each burger and melt down.

Put butter in a large skillet and melt over medium heat.  When the foam begins to subside, crack whole eggs into the pan and let gently fry.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.  You want the eggs to be about half done–somewhat firm to the touch but still a bit runny when you break into them.  When they’re done, gently lift them out of the pan and set aside.

Add spinach to the pan and saute for just a minute or so until slightly wilted.

Plate: spinach on the bottom (sprinkled with a bit of salt and pepper if you like), then red onion, then a burger with cheese.  Finally, gently place an egg on the top of each burger and sprinkle it with hot sauce to your liking.

Ta da!

Related posts:

1. Blood Orange Chimichurri…Burgers?
2. A Hamburger Named Happiness
3. Share the Love…and Pass a Plate

One of the questions I get asked on a regular basis is—how do you do it?  And no, they’re not asking me how I remain so effervescently awesome–it’s clearly obvious that’s a trade secret.  No, they’re asking me, “How do you put a meal together?  And not a meal from a recipe you’ve searched for and pored over and planned out and executed with ninja-like precision (speaking of, there are at least 5 ninjas in this article.  But you can’t see them).  No, a meal from just whatever you have on hand.  How do you do that?”

It occurs to me that somewhere along the line, cooking became some sort of mysterious alchemy to a disturbingly large amount of people.  Food goes in one way, and deliciousness—or for some, vast amounts of thick black smoke–come out the other.  What happens in between is a mystery.  But it really doesn’t have to be that way.  You don’t have to go down the long, dark path to Frozen Foodland most nights, or make the same safe spaghetti and meatball dish every single night.  Not that I’m hating on meatballs–I love meatballs, some of my best friends are meatballs–or anything like that.  But of all the things in the world to fear, making dinner shouldn’t be one of them.  You don’t always have to have a plan.  It works to just toss in what you have.

And what you have doesn’t need to be a lot.  Some of the best recipes (and the best non-recipe recipes) are made with just a few ingredients.  For instance: cream of broccoli soup.  I was sick over the weekend–darn those college students and their germs–and with the very little energy I had and apparently very high fever, I decided I was going to get out of bed long enough to make myself lunch.  And I really wanted cream of broccoli soup.  I don’t know why.  But there you go.  I’ve never made it before and while I’m sure there are thousands of varieties, but I just wanted to make something really simple.  I sauteed a bit of garlic in butter, added a ton of broccoli florets and some chicken stock (cooking things in chicken stock always makes them better), cooked it a few minutes until the broccoli was bright and relatively tender and then pureed it in the blender with a touch of cream, salt, pepper, a bit of red pepper flakes and…a handful of roasted almonds.  I had almonds, I like almonds, I especially like almonds with broccoli, and I figured they would add a bit of texture, some healthy fat and a nice crunch to the soup…and they did.  And that was that.  Threw a bit of shredded cheddar on the soup and I almost felt human again.  Cheese will do that to you.

Or try this: get a few whole red bell peppers.  Cut off the tops, drizzle them with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast them at 450F until the skins blacken.  Dump them into ice water, peel the skins off and puree them with a touch of olive oil.  There you have an amazing sauce that will make almost any meal delicious—and with almost no effort.  Got some chicken or cubed beef stew meat in the fridge?  Season it with whatever you got (I like garam masala), toss it in a hot pan and sear it, then pour in the red pepper sauce, a touch of cream or milk and whatever herbs you have on hand.  Pair it with rice or a steamed veggie or eat it off bread or in a house, with a mouse, off a cat, in a hat, whatever you like.

Ok?  Feel better now?  Go on.  Try it.  Report back.  Bring me leftovers.

Broccoli Almond Soup
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp butter
8 c. broccoli florets
3 c. chicken stock
2 tbsp heavy cream
salt, pepper and red pepper flake to taste
1/2 c. whole roasted almonds

In a large pot, melt 1 tbsp of butter.  Add in the garlic and stir it around in the butter until it’s lightly browned.  Add in broccoli and chicken stock and simmer for 5-7 minutes.  In batches if necessary, pour the broccoli and broth into a blender with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, almonds and cream and puree together.  Serve.  With Cheese.  And then eat.  With relish.  Not real relish.  Unless you want real relish.

Red Pepper Beef
3-4 large red bell peppers
olive oil
salt and pepper
2 tbsp cream
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 pound cubed beef stew meat, cut down further into bite-sized pieces if necessary
1 tbsp garam masala

Preheat oven to 450F.  Line a baking sheet with tinfoil.

Cut the tops off the bell peppers and clean out their insides.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and place them on the baking sheet.  Roast them in the oven until the skins have blackened and the peppers are soft, maybe around a half hour depending on your oven.

Place peppers into a bowl of ice water.  This will help cool them down, as well as make the skins easier to peel off.  Peel off skins as best you can.  Place peppers in a blender along with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, the cream and the oregano.  Puree.

Heat a skillet over medium high heat.  Season stew meat with the garam masala (or whatever spice mix you like).  Sear the meat in the skillet, 3-4 minutes on either side.  Turn the heat down and pour the red pepper sauce over the beef.  Simmer until the beef is tender, about 20 minutes or so.

Related posts:

1. Coconut Beef
2. Beef Pesto Pasta
3. Wrap it up: shredded pork and red pepper salad

So a while back, my mother in law accidentally bought half a cow.  I know you, internet reader, and I know that your first instinct is to quip, “Which half? Front or back?”  Oh you witty person, you.  After that, you’ll ask how someone “accidentally” purchases a half of an animal that can weigh up to 700 pounds when they really meant to just buy a quarter?  I’m not sure but frankly it sounds like something I would do.

Anyway, because of that, Josh and I got a fabulous gift of a large amount of beef that we’ve been whittling down over the past couple months—ground beef, steaks, chuck roasts.  And yesterday, short ribs.

I love short ribs.  “But Lauren,” you say, “You love any kind of ribs.”  Yes, that’s true too.  And with good reason: they are delicious.  Beef short ribs are the bovine equivalent of pork spare ribs and can be found cut into a variety of ways.  While I don’t crave them in the same obsessive manner that I tend to crave pork ribs (hey, the pig is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy), I do enjoy them now and then in place of a good roast.  They’re an excellent candidate for braising, which is not quite baking and not quite boiling.  Once when I was practically swimming in an overflow of Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice, I made pomegranate-braised short ribs with an ancho chile and chocolate rub.  It was pretty awesome.  This dish is somewhat similar, but more “traditional” and a bit less fruity.  Also, I’ve replace the healthy benefits of pomegranate with the healthy benefits of a full bottle of red wine: let’s see if anyone notices!

I think sometimes people see a dish like “Wine braised short ribs” and they get nervous about what they think is supposed to be a very fancy dish but is really just peasant food, and easy peasant food at that.  Take a cut of meat that’s relatively tough, cook it at medium low temperatures for a long time in a flavorful liquid bath and there you go.  You can braise with just about anything, but I like using red wine because alcohol is the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems it has a lot of flavor which can vary widely depending on the wine you choose, it cooks down into a nice, rich sauce and it gives the meat this beautiful dark purple color that’s just very inviting.

And don’t think you have to use expensive wine either.  I picked mine up at Costco.  Seriously.  I was skimming through the surprisingly hefty wine collection at the nearest store in Brighton and found this 2008 Volver La Mancha Tempranillo.  Before I go any further, let me state that I know almost nothing about wine and I don’t drink red wine either.  I only use it for cooking.  However, as I didn’t want to go with one of the super-abundant standards like a merlot or cabernet cause I wanted to try something new.  So I just skimmed the labels looking for something that sounded good.  Scientific, I know.  I can hear you wine-snobs shaking your heads.    But anyway, I picked this one because of the intriguing flavors listed for it: dark plums, black cherries, red currants, smoke, earth, pain grillé (toast), blue and black fruits, etc.  I thought that sounded like a wonderful addition to a big meaty dish.

To complement it, I cooked down some leeks, carrots and garlic cloves for sweetness and body and rubbed the ribs with butter, salt, black pepper, dried basil, paprika and a bit of cumin.  The side dish was simple, slightly spicy and citrus-y, to cut through the darker sweetness of the meat: mounds of leafy arugula (from Goetz farm) and white beans sauteed in blood orange infused olive oil with a bit of red pepper flake. And a baguette, of course.

It took about two and a half hours to cook the ribs, and about 5 minutes for the arugula and bean salad.  The smell of the warm wine wafted through the house; it was really quite fantastic.  What you get at the end is this dark, tender meat that just sort of lazily slides off the bone.  It makes an excellent Sunday dinner and, if you’re lucky and there are leftovers, an amazing beef sandwich afterwards.  Just thinking about it makes me want to take a nap.

Wine-Braised Short Ribs
Feeds 4

2 pounds short ribs, cut into pieces that will fit in your pan if necessary
3 medium carrots, diced
1 small leek, cleaned and diced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp black pepper
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp dried basil
3/4 tbsp paprika
1 700ml bottle of a red wine you like

Preheat oven to 375F.  In a large, heavy, oven-safe pot, melt butter with olive oil over medium high heat, until the butter froths and then the bubbles die down.  Add in leeks, carrots and garlic, stirring until thoroughly coated in the butter.  Cook about 4-5 minutes, stirring regularly, until they start to cook down just a bit.

Rub the ribs with butter.  Combine salt, pepper, cumin, basil and paprika in a small dish and then press spice mixture into the ribs, coating thoroughly.  Make a bit of room in the center of the pot by pushing the vegetables to the sides and then place ribs meat-side down in the pan, fitting in as best you can.  Cover and let sear for about 5 minutes.  Flip the ribs over.  Pour enough wine into the pan to coat 3/4 of the way up the ribs.  Drink whatever is left. 

Place a top on the pot and put into the oven.  Let braise for about 2.5 hours, checking occasionally and turning meat as needed.  Let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

Warm Arugula and White Bean Salad
This will make as much as you want to; use it as a guideline, not a strict recipe.

You will need:
fresh arugula
canned or pre-cooked white (cannellini) beans
citrus-infused olive oil (I used blood-orange olive oil)
salt, pepper and red pepper flake to taste.

Heat a skillet over a medium flame.  Pour in a tablespoon of olive oil and let heat up.  Toss in arugula and white beans, stirring to combine and coat in the olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper and pepper flakes and saute until the arugula begins to wilt down.  If desired, sprinkle with a little bit more olive oil (don’t over do it) and serve.  As the arugula will wilt down quite a bit the longer you cook it, aim for 1-2 cups of fresh arugula per person.

Related posts:

1. Pomegranate-braised ancho-chocolate beef: it's what's for dinner. And maybe dessert. No, just dinner. Maybe dessert.
2. Joie de vivre: bacon, onions, butter, potatoes, goat cheese, mushrooms, cream and wine
3. Dinner for one, mmmque?

These meatballs were the one gastronomical high point of my week, and that’s sad.  The meatballs aren’t sad; they’re fantastic.  What’s sad is that I have yet to follow them up with anything as delicious.  To make it up to you, and to my poor, poor belly, I think I will make some barbecue this weekend and post all the mouth-watering photos that I can.  That’s my gift to you.  Or it will be.  If I do it.

Anyway, I can’t really remember but I’m pretty sure I made these on Monday, before my week went completely to crap.  I really love meatballs.  I’m intrigued by them.  Not the “Why the hell would you do that?” kind of fascination that I have with meatloaf, oddly enough, but a simple curious adoration (I’ll do anything for meatballs but I won’t do that?).  In fact, if you recall, my previous iteration of this blog was chickenmeatballs.wordpress.com.  It’s one of my food goals to master the art of meatball making (along with icing, pulled pork, chocolate turtles, pancakes, biscuits and a few thousand other things—luckily, I think I’ve got the chocolate chip cookie down).  Well, this week I think I moved a tiny bit closer to my goal of meatball perfection. 

I really wanted to make meatballs on Monday. I don’t know why.  But I was driven to.  The planets were in alignment.  They are shaped like giant meatballs!  Clearly a sign.  Clearly.  So the problem I usually have with meatballs is the consistency–mine often fall apart and I use mostly beef or chicken and they’re ok but it usually ends up being more of a meat sauce than a meat ball. More of a gathering and less of a par-tay.  And while I had ground beef and pork on hand this time, and I thought ahead and grated my onions and garlic in the food processor and I had an egg and all this stuff, I lacked something to hold everything together and absorb the extra grease.  Usually recipes call for breadcrumbs or crackers or something.  I didn’t have any of those.  But I figured I’d try something else, something that I knew was a common thickening agent in Indian food (and I knew this because I’m currently reading a book on the evolution of Indian food that I will write about later, when I’ve finished this last chapter–fabulous book though) and it mentions that ground almonds are commonly used to thicken up dishes.

Ground almonds, hmm?

I didn’t have any almonds.

I did have pecans though, because I made another batch of turtles this last week.

Ground pecans, you say.

The devil you say!

What’s that you say?

Who’m I talking to?  I don’t know.  Let’s just move on.

Indeed, I ground up a half cup of pecans and added that to my meatball mixture.  And it seemed to work.  They took shape nicely, they held together, the flavor was great–the pecans were barely noticeable but still gave it a bit of something.  I mean, clearly this needs to be tested again (and again and again until I’m full) but this first time worked out beautifully.

Doing all that, I was too lazy to then make sauce from scratch (well, not too lazy, but I didn’t have any tomatoes to use) so I decided to jazz up my favorite canned sauce by adding some spinach, some cream cheese and roasted some poblano peppers in the oven at 400F for about 25 minutes until blistered, peeling and seeding them and then pureeing them in the processor and adding them to the sauce.  Gave the sauce delicious tang.  Two forks up.

Now That’s a Meatball Meatballs
Makes about 10 large meatballs

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
4oz shredded parmigiano regianno
1/2 onion, grated
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c. pecans ground
1 1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pepper
1 large tbsp dried oregano
2 tsp chipotle
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 400F.

Put all ingredients in a large bowl and mix together with a fork until everything, especially the almonds, is fully incorporated.  Using a regular-sized ice cream scoop, scoop out portions of meatballs and lay on a cookie sheet that has been covered with tin foil and baking spray.

Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes or until just done.  Add to sauce to finish for another 2-3 minutes.

Related posts:

1. Linguine with Lemon, Swiss Chard and Chicken Meatballs
2. Hate Mondays, love lasagna and other similarities between me and Garfield
3. Pasta!

uh yes please

I picked out glasses yesterday afternoon.  Prescription sunglasses, to be precise.  I can’t really tell you what they look like though.  I’m not even really sure.  That’s the problem with having to try on glasses when you don’t wear contacts and are otherwise mostly blind.  But hey, in about 3-4 weeks when they come in, maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised!  Or horrified.  We’ll see.  Ha.  We’ll see.  Get it?  Yeah.

So after that, I walked down to Kerrytown and waited for Josh to pick me up.  It’s after five at this point.  Then we have to go get the dog because yes, my dog goes to doggy daycare once a week so he can run around and socialize like the wild beast that he is.  Of course, to get him, we have to drive through all the construction down on Main Street by Stadium and then once we’ve got him, we have to stop at the bank.  And then drive through rush-hour traffic through town because there’s no way we’re hitting I-94 at this hour and by the time we get home, settled, mail on the table, shoes off the feet, bathroom break taken care of, dog fed, etc, etc, etc, we’re looking at almost 7pm and time to make dinner and I’m starving.  I also have a lot of freelance work to do—videos to edit, DVDs to burn, that sort of thing–and don’t want to be on my feet all night cooking.  And then there’s that nagging little voice that says, “Screw cooking; order a pizza from Aubree’s.  With breadsticks.  Don’t forget my breadsticks.”

But no.  I persevered.  I was going to make dinner, damnit, not spend $30 on pizza.  Besides, I had tons of pasta (thank you, Costco) and some ground beef we’d picked up from the farmer’s market on Saturday and some other stuff here and there, I could probably put something together.  Oh and some frozen bread, because Josh has this thing where we can’t have pasta without some sort of garlic bread and he likes this Alexia frozen garlic baguette stuff and we had one left.  And in the fridge I had a bunch of fresh basil leftover from making the red pepper cannellini bean dip and a nub of parmigiano reggiano and on the counter was a quart of cherry tomatoes leftover from I don’t even remember what–maybe antipasto skewers–and of course, there’s always garlic and olive oil and…yeah.  Yeah I think we can do this.

The resulting concoction was this pasta, which is kind of a pesto-beef penne.  I didn’t want to make a red sauce because..well, sometimes you just get bored with red sauce.  Plus, I didn’t want it to overpower the flavor of the beef, which I really wanted to taste because we hadn’t bought meat from this vendor before and I really want to know how good it is.  And I didn’t want to make a real pesto because I wanted something lighter than that, with less olive oil.  So I made sort of a pesto-inspired pan-sauce and it worked out really well.  The flavor of the basil stood out and just behind that was the parm and the grassy flavor of the beef plus the garlic and the sweetness of the tomatoes and a pinch of heat from red pepper flakes.  It was light and tasty and just a really good pick-me-up after a long day, especially because it only took as long as boiling water and cooking the pasta.

For Josh’s bread, I figured if I’m going to use frozen, pre-baked garlic bread, I might as well dress it up a bit and tie in a bit of the flavor from the pasta into it as well, so I topped it with the basil-parm mixture before putting it in the oven.  It worked out very well–dressed it up a bit, so to speak.  If I was making garlic bread from scratch, I would halve a baguette lengthwise, slather it with butter and then sprinkle the basil mixture on top before baking it.

Pesto-Beef Penne, more or less
serves 4

Basil-Parmigiano Mix
2 c. basil
4 oz parmigiano regianno
2 tbsp olive oil

Pasta
1 pound penne, cooked according to package directions
1/2 c. pasta water reserved after cooking penne
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp each olive oil and butter
2 tsps salt, divided
2 tsps pepper, divided
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 c. chicken stock or water
1 quart cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, smashed
1 pound ground beef
1 tsp red pepper flake (adjust to your taste)

1.  Put basil, parm and olive oil in a food processor and blend until coarse and crumbly.  Set aside (smear a little on bread if you like).

2.  In a large skillet over medium high heat, melt butter into the olive oil.  When the butter’s foam subsides, add in cherry tomatoes.  Sprinkle with 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper and oregano.  Let cook, stirring occasionally, for 4-5 minutes.  Add in mushrooms and garlic and continue cooking for another 3-4 minutes.  Add a bit of chicken stock or water if more moisture is needed to keep things from sticking.

3.  Add in the ground beef, cutting into small pieces.  Sprinkle with remaining salt and pepper and red pepper flake.  Cook until browned.

4.  Spoon half of the basil mixture into the beef and stir together.  Stir the remaining basil mixture into the cooked pasta and then add the pasta to the pan with the beef.  Stir in the reserved pasta water, combining all elements in the pan thoroughly.

Serve and eat with bread   Can’t have pasta without bread, after all.

Related posts:

1. Beef Pesto Pasta
2. Meal For One: Black and Green Pasta
3. Pasta!

So even though I’m positively itching (that might be the bug bites from the yardwork) to hop on the grilling bandwagon and get my yippy-ki-yay on, I went back to my cold-weather friend, the slowcooker, and decided to try a new recipe…for goulash.

Am I the only person who, when they hear the word “goulash,” immediately thinks of Gargamel from the Smurfs?  No, you do it too?  Ok, good.  I’m not sure I’ve ever had a proper “goulash,” which is a stew usually made of beef, onions, vegetables, and paprika.  Interestingly, Wikipedia tells me that the word stems from the Hungarian word for cattle herdsmen.  Ha!  It’s like Hungarian Cowboy Stew.  Anyway, like I was saying, I’m not sure I’ve ever had a proper “goulash.”  After making this recipe, I’m sure I haven’t.  Not that it wasn’t quite tasty and rather easy to prepare, and not that it didn’t fill the house with a fragrant, spicy aroma, but I did add a couple of non-standard items for my own pleasure, like a dash of cinnamon and a bit of ancho chile powder.  I also didn’t do what Wikipedia says is a basic step to making goulash—but in my defense, the recipe didn’t call for it:

An important rule for all kinds of goulash, pörkölt and paprikás is to start by frying the onions in the fat until light gold (never darker), take the pan off the fire, immediately add the paprika powder to the hot mixture and stir well, then add the meat and stir again to coat the meat well with the onion-fat-paprika mixture before returning the pot to the fire. This ensures that the flavour of the paprika is released by contact with the hot fat, but that it does not burn or become bitter, which can easily happen if the pan is not taken off the fire first.

Another first for me in this recipe was the use of caraway seed.  Well, it wasn’t the first time I’ve used it, but it was the first time a recipe told me to.  Caraway seeds come from a plant that looks similar to a carrot plant and are native to Asia, Europe and northern Africa.  It seems innocuous until you grind it up or heat it and then it has a very fragrant anise-y scent.  It’s often used in rye bread or havarti cheese, so there’s a good chance you’ve tried it and just didn’t know.

And to finish out my “first” trifecta (altho, I guess really just a duo since my goulash isn’t an authentic goulash, per se), I opted for one clove of elephant garlic instead of the 3 regular cloves listed in the recipe.  Elephant garlic isn’t actually real garlic, and you can sort of tell that when you peel and slice the cloves.  It’s part of the leek family, but has a light, more-garlic-like flavor.

Anyway, while the picture for the recipe showed the goulash being served over wide egg noodles, I, in my cheapness and resistance to purchasing yet another item at the grocery store, decided to serve mine over jasmine rice that I cooked in beef broth (delish).  Josh enjoyed it thoroughly, as did I–it was tasty, warm, filling and would be extremely easy to scale up or down to accommodate your dinner guests.

Hungarian Beef Goulash
from Eating Well

serves 8
* 2 pounds beef stew meat, (such as chuck), trimmed and cubed
* 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
* 1 1/2-2 tablespoons sweet or hot paprika, (or a mixture of the two), preferably Hungarian (see Ingredient Note)
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* Freshly ground pepper, to taste
* 1 large or 2 medium onions, chopped
* 1 small red bell pepper, chopped
* 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
* 1 14-ounce can reduced-sodium beef broth
* 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 bay leaves
* 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons water
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1. Place beef in a 4-quart or larger slow cooker. Crush caraway seeds with the bottom of a saucepan. Transfer to a small bowl and stir in paprika, salt and pepper. Sprinkle the beef with the spice mixture and toss to coat well. Top with onion and bell pepper.
2. Combine tomatoes, broth, Worcestershire sauce and garlic in a medium saucepan; bring to a simmer. Pour over the beef and vegetables. Place bay leaves on top. Cover and cook until the beef is very tender, 4 to 4 1/2 hours on high or 7 to 7 1/2 hours on low.
3. Discard the bay leaves; skim or blot any visible fat from the surface of the stew. Add the cornstarch mixture to the stew and cook on high, stirring 2 or 3 times, until slightly thickened, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve sprinkled with parsley.

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So now that Self and I were in agreement (which happens much less often than you might imagine), I started thinking about various winter meals we could make with pomegranate.  I considered roasting a chicken basted with a pomegranate compound butter.  Iactually did that one, too.  It wasn’t bad.  But it didn’t make me go, “Mmmmmmmmmmmm” with my head tilted back and my mouth wide open slouched in a chair like Homer Simpson.  I also thought about stuffing a pork tenderloin with spinach and goat cheese and cooking it in a pomegranate glaze.  Haven’t done that yet…but probably will, because thinking about it now has me drooling a little bit, I’ll admit it.

But there was one other idea.  A not-so-common idea.  A slightly unusual idea.  An idea that makes you go “Hmmmmm…” and will hopefully make you go “Mmmmm.”  This idea was partially inspired by my love for roasted beef and partially by my love for the pairing of pomegranate and chocolate, which I discovered when I first made an ice cream sundae with pomegranate sauce and chocolate syrup, and partially by the natural affinity that chocolate and hot spices have for each other.  I thought, “Let’s coat some good short ribs with a dry rub of chili powder and cocoa and then braise it in pomegranate juice.”  That’s the ticket.

When I first told my husband about my plan, he very tactfully said, “That sounds…interesting.”  And of course he willingly volunteered to be a guinea pig.  Deep down, I think he doubted the tastiness of my theoretical concoction, which made it all the better when he got his first taste of it as it was cooking and said, “That is fantastic.  I don’t know what it is, but it’s fantastic.”

And indeed, they were fantastic, and gorgeous and falling off the bone and incredibly easy to make and delicious and oh my goodness, did I mention what happened to the onions?  They became like candy, almost black in color from absorbing that pomegranate juice and the whole dish took on this decadent savory-sweetness.

It worked out even more perfectly than I had anticipated.  I chose the ancho chile powder because it’s got a vast amount of smoky flavor (it’s a dried poblano pepper) but isn’t very hot.  It mixes well with cocoa powder.  If you’re worried about putting chocolate in your food, don’t.  It’s not as odd as it sounds—it’s fairly common in South America and many chili-devotees add a bit to their pots to deepen the flavor.  The meal doesn’t taste chocolately, it just gets these nice deep undertones.  On top of all of that, you have the sweetness and acidity of the pomegranate juice (not to mention all the antioxidants!) that break down and tenderize the meat and give it a gorgeous, dark, caramelized color and flavor.

It was so flavorful that for a side dish, I just threw together some steamed rice and broccoli because anything else would have been sensory overload.  In fact, so delicious was this dish that not only am I going to sit in satisfied smugness for the rest of the night, but I’m also already planning on doing it again for a dinner party sometime—it’s already top on my list of delicious, impressive, hands-off, no-fuss dishes.

Winter may just be my new favorite season.  Well, no.  Probably not.  However, this just may make it bearable.

Pomegranate-Braised Short Ribs with Ancho-Chocolate Rub
Note: I made enough in this recipe for 2 people, however, the dish is incredibly easy to scale.  When you’re purchasing short ribs, count on about 2 ribs per person and scale the recipe accordingly.

4 full short ribs
1 large sweet onion
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp cracked black pepper
1 tbsp herbs de Provence
2 tbsp ancho chile powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
olive oil
1 16-oz bottle POM Wonderful Pomegranate Juice

Mix the salt, pepper, herbs, ancho and cocoa powders in a small bowl.  Rub the ribs all over with the spice mix, thoroughly incorporating it into the meat.  Let sit for at least a half hour, or up to overnight.  Let the meat sit on the counter for about 20 minutes before cooking it, so that it comes up to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 400F.  In a large, heavy cast iron pot or dutch oven, heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.  While that’s warming up, slice the onion into 1/2 inch rings.  Add the onion to the olive oil, cover and let cook for 2 minutes before flipping over and continuing to cook on the other side.  You want the onions to get translucent and flavorful, but not too cooked down or burned.

Move onions to the side of the pan and place short ribs into the pan meat-side down (you don’t want to sear the bone side of the rib).  Cover and let sear for 4-5 minutes or until well-browned.  Try not to move the meat around too much at this point, because you want it to maintain good contact with the pan.  Turn the meat over, nestling it well into the onions, and pour in the entire 16-oz bottle of pomegranate juice.

Cover and slide the pot into the oven.  Let the meat sit and braise in the juice for about 2 hours, or until the sauce has cooked down into a nice glaze and the meat is so tender that it’s falling off the bone.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes before serving.

Eat.  Enjoy.  Eat more.  Beef.  It’s what’s for dinner. 

If you like this, vote for me in the POM Wonderful 2009 Fresh Recipe Contest.  Thanks!

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But anyway, tonight we made calzones. Partly out of a want of pizza on my part, partly out of a guiltiness that I pasted a calzone recipe into my Evernote months ago and had yet to get around to making it, and partly because Busch’s has ground sirloin on sale. I figured, heck, at home we already had cheese, peppers, onions, garlic, spinach and mushrooms and tomatoes…all we had to do is pick up the beef and some pizza dough.  AND we–and by “we” I mean “I”–could make enough for tonight and tomorrow’s lunch.  Genius.  Of course, once at the store, a few other items got added to the list, mostly due to Josh’s deep-seated love for pepperoni and pizza sauce.  And then it came down to the crust.

What to use?

I mean, at this point, I’m feeling too lazy to make my own pizza crust.  And by “this point,” I mean “I am always too lazy to make my own pizza crust.”  But Busch’s only had (that I know of) frozen pizza crusts, and we didn’t want to wait for a dough ball to thaw.  Nor did we really trust the canned Pillsbury pizza crust (don’t get me wrong–I am not a food snob (much) and and I have made more than my share of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, biscuits and donuts but pizza dough?  In a can?   For some reason I won’t go that far).  And we didn’t want to venture to another store to get fresh pizza dough.  So I did the only reasonable thing: I picked up a couple of pie crusts.  Pillsbury.    My reluctance to embrace pizza-in-a-can also does not extend to ready-made-roll-out-pie crusts.  I’m a complex creature.  There’s no point in trying to figure it out.

But anyway, I reasoned that pie dough, while flakier, would work fine–not to mention, there’s two crusts in a package, I can get two calzones from each crust…that’s 4 crusts for like $2…and then I can be sufficiently lazy.  Jackpot.

So this is really a recipe-less recipe.  I know that I said up there that I have a calzone recipe stored away in my Evernote.  That doesn’t mean I actually used it.  Guidelines, people.  Recipes are guidelines.

So I:

• sautéed a small onion, a handful of chopped cremini mushroooms and two small diced bell peppers in a bit of olive oil
• added two chopped cloves of garlic and 1 chopped hot pepper
• added a handful of pepperoni (in hindsight, I wish I had cooked the pepperoni first and then cooked the veggies in the grease rather than in oil; ah well)
• added about a half pound of ground sirloin
• added salt, pepper and red pepper flake
• added a couple handfuls of baby spinach
• cooked it all down until the meat was cooked through and the veggies were soft
• stirred in a few tablespoons of sauce
• drained the pot, added in a bit more sauce and a big handful of cheese

And then I:

• heated the oven to 425F
• opened the pie crusts and slice each one in half
• one by one, I brushed the edges of each half with water, place a quarter of the meat mixture in the center and folded the crust over and sealed them
• placed them into two baking dishes because I was too lazy last night to clean the cookie sheets after I baked cookies (peanut butter chocolate chip, if you’re wondering)
• poked holes in the calzones with a fork to let steam out
• placed them in the oven for 20 minutes

While the calzones were cooking, I:

• checked my Twitter
• chopped a large zucchini and a large summer squash into half inch rounds
• heated up a bit of oil in the pan that I had used to cook the calzone filling
• tossed in the squash and zucchini
• sprinkled them with salt and pepper
• checked my Facebook
• stirred the veggies a couple times
• checked on the calzones
• poured myself a big glass of water (hydration is very important to me; it’s good for the skin)
• called Josh to dinner

When the calzones were done, I

• pulled them out of the oven
• topped two of them with more sauce and shredded cheese
• added the squash on the side
• saved the other two for tomorrow’s lunch
• ate
• decided I really like bullet points

The crusts were indeed quite flaky but also light, and it let the tastiness of the filling shine through more.  Josh approved.  And abided.  And just told me that my calzones fit perfectly into our sandwich bags.  Score.

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What?  I have a lot of time on my hands this evening.

The gist of it is that once again, Josh and I were faced with the intrinsically existential question of…”What are we going to make for dinner?”  Then Josh left to (seriously) test out Volvos and buy canning supplies (you just can’t make this stuff up) and I was on my own to figure out the answer to tonight’s eternal question.

Well, for me it was pretty easy.  Josh would probably not have been interested but hey, he wasn’t here!  Besides, we had all the ingredients.  Making steak pizziola just made sense.

What is steak pizziola?  Well, it’s pretty much what it sounds like: steak cooked in…well, pizza toppings.  Notably a delicious tomato sauce and pizza-appropriate veggies.  We had just gotten a few small sirloin tip steaks (on sale!) and I pulled two out and froze the rest.

We also had canned crushed tomatoes (I generally use the San Marzano brand when possible; if you have to use canned tomatoes from a store, they usually taste the best), sweet peppers, garlic, red onion and scallions (from our farm share this week!) and on the side, we had (farm share) potatoes and yellow squash.  Sounds like a dinner to me.

Really it was the farm share that made this meal entirely possible.  It was a great week for the farm share—we got a huge amount of tomatoes, peppers and summer squash, plus a good-sized celery root, or celeriac, and some winter squash, and big bag of beans.  Be still, my beating heart!

Steak Pizziola

2 sirloin tip steaks, about 7oz each
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 giant clove garlic, or two smaller cloves, thinly sliced
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium Hungarian wax pepper, chopped
1 c. crushed tomatoes
1 large sprig thyme
olive oil
salt and pepper
2 tsp red pepper flake
2 tbsp chopped green onion

Heat a bit of olive oil in a good-sized skillet over high heat.  Season steaks with salt and pepper and sear on each side before removing from pan and turning down heat.

Sautê the onion, garlic and peppers in the meat juices until soft; add the meat back in and pour in the tomatoes, thyme sprig and red pepperflake.

Cover and cook for about 35-40 minutes over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, until meat is cooked through and cuts easily.

Remove thyme sprigs and fold in green onions.

We served ours with a side of roasted purple potatoes and yellow squash, seasoned with just olive oil, salt and pepper.  Delish!

…oh and dessert?  Pumpkin pie spiced chocolate chip cookies.  More on that later.

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3. Farm Share Goodies: July 29